Mundeghili: Meatballs wrapped in cabbage

Ingredients

• 600 g of ground beef, previously minced or, better yet, finely chopped with a meat grinder
• About a dozen cabbage leaves are needed, one per pancake.
• 100 g of cooked ham
• 50 g of stale bread soaked in milk, enough to cover
• 50 g of Parmesan Reggiano (average age: 18 to 24 months), grated
• 1 whole egg
• parsley, to taste
• Walnuts and nutmeg, in sufficient quantities
• oregano, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 50 g of butter or 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil from the Ligurian Riviera, or
• 1/2 glass, made up of 50% dry white wine and 50% vegetable stock
• 8 tablespoons of tomato puree

Prepare the dough by mixing the ground meat, breadcrumbs soaked in milk, chopped cooked ham, grated Parmesan cheese, and egg with the parsley and chopped nutmeg.

Let the dough rest for two hours.

While you’re doing that, blanch the cabbage leaves to keep them crisp, but also make them easy to shape into small balls.

Next, quickly immerse them in cold water to stop the cooking process.

Finally, make sure to dry them thoroughly while you wait for the dough to be ready.

Prepare about ten meatballs using the dough, and wrap each one in curly kale.

To make cooking easier, it is also possible to tie the meatballs together with string, so that they can be easily removed from the pan at the end of cooking without damaging them.